What is physically happening when a salt cell goes bad?

[JasonLion]

Acid washing is extremely effective at removing calcium deposits without risking serious damage to the cell plates. However acid washing does tend to slightly shorten the coating lifetime. Calcium frequently can't be removed with a simple water spray. It can often be removed with brushing, but that is both tricky to do due to tight plate spacing and risks causing significant damage.

 

[DeadAquaRite]

My salt cell decided to up and die after 9 years, so I decided it was time to dig into this mystery a bit. Below is a link to a thread where I dissected a failed SWG cell.

Salt Cell Failure - Post-mortem with pictures

 

[chem geek]

James referred to a thread where I wrote this post that describes the usual cell rating type of failure, roughly 10,000 hours. What you experienced was different though it's possible that the plates could deteriorate more quickly if some had a degraded coating.